Video Games/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is a character in a Presidential Grand Prix video game. Tim is in a go-kart racing against U.S. presidents. One president throws something at Tim, knocking him off course. TIM: Agggh! Moby pulls up to Tim in an ambulance go-kart. He is holding a letter. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, a letter. The game pauses. Tim and Moby are sitting on a couch using controllers to play the video game. TIM: Thanks. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I play a lot of video games, and I want to design one later on in life. How are video games created? From, Andrew. Well Andrew, making a successful video game requires a lot of time and effort from many different people. Video games depend on two maincomponents: hardware and software. Hardware is the technology inside every home computer and gaming console. Images show a computer tower, laptop, and wired and wireless gaming consoles. TIM: And software is the programming, written in computer language known as code, which makes up the games themselves. An image shows a video game box and disc titled "Presidential Grand Prix." A pop-up shows a snippet of the game's code. TIM: Computers and consoles are built around a sophisticated piece of equipment called the central processing unit. It's also known as the CPU or microprocessor. An image shows a laptop and videogame controller. Then, an image shows a computer's central processing unit. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, the same device that allows you to type English papers and solve math problems also lets you kill zombies and drive go-karts. Anyway, the CPU is small, but super-powerful. It can perform billions of different tasks every second. Another key piece of hardware is the graphics processing unit, or GPU, which can create complex, 3-D graphics at very high speeds. An image shows a graphics processing unit video card. TIM: GPUs can draw and redraw every character and background in a video game thirty times a second, every second, for as long as you play the game. An animation shows a simple pong video game on a computer monitor. An image shows a graphics processing unit. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right, that's the hardware. The individual games are examples of software. Creating software begins with a concept for a game. It can be an original idea, or it could be based on a movie, another game, or something from real life. An animation shows a woman typing at a computer. Two racing game posters are on her wall. TIM: Next, writers and artists create rough sketches, called storyboards, for each scene of the game. Developers often use these sketches to play imaginary rounds of the game to see if rules and everything else make sense. Once the game has been planned out, it's time for computer programmers to step in and create the stuff you see onscreen. An animation shows a man sketching scenes of a go-kart race, including drivers racing and throwing objects at other drivers. TIM: They do this by writing code: thousands, often millions, of lines of text in a computer language. An animation shows computer code scrolling on a screen. The animation zooms out to show a programmer sitting at the computer. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the heart of every video game is a huge chunk of code called the game engine. The engine does the work that keeps the game running. In this game, the engine calculates how each go-kart moves, and what happens when two go-karts collide. A split screen image shows the go-kart game. The top image shows two drivers with one slightly ahead. The bottom image shows the go-karts colliding. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Nope, a different set of code has to be written for characters, scenes, and environments. Everything you see in a video game is composed of simple geometric shapes called polygons. An image shows different shaped and sized polygons. TIM: A character may look smooth and three-dimensional but up close its surface is just a bunch of squares, triangles, and other flat shapes. Programmers assemble hundreds, even thousands, of polygons to create the illusion of a 3D image! An image shows a president driving a go-kart. Then it shows how his face is created using polygons. TIM: After the polygons are combined into images, a technique called texture mapping gives them texture and color. Images show the process of texture mapping. Moby's head is created using polygons and a texture is created and placed on it. TIM: Texture mapping can create anything from the moss growing on a stone temple to the grey, rotting flesh of a zombie. Images show a woman facing a mossy arch and a green-gray zombie. TIM: Other aspects of the game have to be programmed too: things like sound, music, and lighting effects. An animation shows that music, engine sound, and other sounds, are matched to the go-karts movements. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, unlike TV shows and movies, games are interactive media: users actively participate with them. An image shows a boy playing a video game with a controller. TIM: So teams of testers carefully go through the game to see if there are any bugs or glitches in the software that affect the game play. They also report on whether the game is compelling, challenging, and fun. An image shows men and women testing video games. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Basically, they look for the same things that you would. Like, how much effort does it take to learn the game's rules and controls? If mastering the game is too easy, you'll get bored. Moby talks on the phone while playing the videogame. TIM: But if it's too hard, you'll get frustrated. Moby reads the Instruction Manual while trying to play the game. TIM: Does the game immerse you in its world? Realistic art and animation can suck you into a game, but even those with simple graphics can be fun and addictive. Moby plays a simple falling-blocks game named, "Tetris." The hands of the clock on the wall next to him move quickly, showing he spends a lot of time playing it. TIM: And finally, how do you respond emotionally to the game? Happiness, anger, suspense, fear; if a game doesn't arouse at least one of these emotions, it won't be very satisfying. Game testers submit reports of their experiences and the development team fixes glitches and tweaks the gameplay to make it as fun as possible. Once the game has gone through several rounds of testing, it's ready to be released, and ready for people like us to play. An image shows a controller surrounded by smiling, frowning, scared, and excited emojis. Moby points to the videogame. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Sure, go ahead. I don't think I'm ready for another lap. All those old presidents kind of scare me. Moby joins the video game race. In the race, Moby goes ahead, a president holds up a club, and the music slows down. Moby stands on the winner's podium in first place holding the gold cup. The two presidents see stars as "Game Over" flashes over them. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Engineering & Technology Transcripts